Reflection

Before I began this course, blogging was a foreign concept to me. I hadn’t run one before, so of course I was unsure about what I should write about for the first few weeks. So I began with a post about the topic I know better than anyone else: myself. I talked about me and my winding career journey up to this point, a story I’m quite used to telling. After another week or two, I got the hang of it, and starting searching for articles related to the First Amendment, summarizing them, and including a bit of my opinion in the posts.
I got to talk about various ways the First Amendment was misused or not used where it should, as well as a few posts expressing my methods of securing my online privacy. Nevertheless, up-keeping a blog - for the first half of the semester, at least - was fairly difficult, as it was hard to pick and choose which articles are discussed. It was also difficult to simply remember to do it; I remember a few days where I spontaneously remembered I forgot to finish my blog post for that week. It was a bit easier in the second half, where the articles were based off of in-class activities. This way, I could come fresh out of class with ideas for a blog and write them down.
For future students, I would recommend setting reminders at the end of each week to wrap up the blog post. Space out your blog posts, because cramming a few of them together is not fun. In addition, I would also recommend not getting all their articles in the same week or so. Writing about more recent events is much more intriguing and easier to discuss than something you grabbed an article on five weeks ago and didn’t bother writing about until that day.

Five Eyes

One aspect of a series of presentations done in class today that I found intriguing was the intelligence agency known as "Five Eyes." "Five Eyes" is a set of five countries devoted to gathering intelligence, made up of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The types of intelligence they gather are vast, from defense intelligence to human intelligence. They were the developers of ECHELON, a surveillance system I was familiar with thanks to my father, a computer expert, who jokingly named one of our home's WiFi networks "ECHELON Spy Satellite." The "Five Eyes" also monitor the World Wide Web. A whistleblower I discussed in my own presentation, Edward Snowden, leaked that the members have been spying on one another's citizens and described the organization as "a supra-natural organization that does not answer to the laws of its own countries." In spite of controversy, it remains a powerful surveillance force.

I only had one question in regards to the organization: With the United Kingdom having been part of the European Union up until recently, when they threatened to walk out, did the EU have access to any of the UK's information? If the EU did have this information, and it retains this information after the UK's departure, could this information be weaponized and used against the countries involved - or maybe even the ones not related?

The Problem with Privacy

When it comes to internet privacy, I tend to be overly cautious about my digital footprint, almost to the point where some would call it paranoia. I don't post anything online that I think would be inappropriate or doesn't reflect me as a person - this results in me not posting very frequently due to coming up with ideas for posts and then backing out at the last second. When it comes to downloads, if a download seems fishy, I either refuse the download or eliminate it as soon as possible, because the idea of malware frightens me. So when I found out about what the government knows about me from something as small as location services, I freaked out. Of course, I don't go or do anywhere or anything illegal or dangerous - that's just not my style. The reason why I got nervous was that I hate the idea of being watched without my knowing - especially by people I don't know. Even when I'm doing something good, I would prefer my viewers to be known and limited. And seeing as how I spend a lot of time online, I shudder at the thought of how much information I have given that the government has "borrowed."

Thankfully, I believe my footprint is still small. Because I'm very careful of my digital footprint, I tend to leave behind consistent, false information, such as a fake birth date and age. I'm extremely cautious about what personal information I reveal online - when asked to share my credit card or something similar, I check the site's Terms of Service to see exactly what they do with it. And my results seem to have paid off: when testing how much my carbon footprint has grown by googling myself, after a long and arduous process looking through plenty of names, I finally found a profile that closely resembles mine - devoid of any personal information, aside from my name. And these videos encouraged me to make sure that profile never gets filled out.

The Tragedy of a Whistleblower

What is a whistleblower, you may ask? To put it simply, it is one who informs others of misdeeds in the workplace. The phrase may originate from sports referees who would use the blowing of a whistle to signify an unfair play, or from police officers who would also use whistles in order to alert others of a law being broken. Thus, a whistleblower came to be known as one who exposes information that is deemed illegal or unethical.
While the term "whistleblower" is a more good-hearted term than its equivalents such as "snitch" or "informer," the term still carries a feeling of uneasiness around it, not for the action itself - which is usually considered a good thing - but for the consequences and repercussions of said actions. Whistleblowers often receive retaliation from the workplace for their snitchiness, ranging from demotions to losing their jobs, and even their ability to be hired ever again. Thus, the term whistleblower is one employees tend to avoid, even when they know something is wrong and it needs to be shown to others. Numerous laws have been enacted to prevent employer retaliation, but the majority of workplaces tend to be silent out of fear regardless.

If you have any questions about whistleblowing or whistleblower protection, here's a site where you can learn more.

Online Presence

I've always been very careful about distributing personal information online, so in terms of my online footprint, I think it's actually fairly small. This might be due to the fact that I only use two social media sites - Twitter and Snapchat (the latter very rarely to boot) - and even when I do use them, it's mainly to share other people's content that I enjoy. Most of the time, I'm just sharing content from others I find to be funny or important; I rarely post myself. As an example of how rarely I post, as of April 4, 2019, my last original Twitter post was in October of last year.
When it comes to personal information distribution, I'm very careful about who gets what. While I do use my real name if asked for it, I do sometimes use a fake date of birth on some of my online accounts - just to make gathering personal information a bit more difficult. And from what I can remember, I have only given out my address online once: to Amazon, in order to have them deliver a package. Needless to say, I am extremely careful about which sites know what about me.

COM Tech Timeline

In terms of modern tech giants, none have had as much of an influence as Google. Initially popular for their advanced search engine that left the competition in the dust, Google has now expanded its influence to encompass an email platform, the video streaming platform YouTube, and, until recently, its own social media platform, Google Plus. Nearly every website has a "sign up with Gmail" option nowadays, proving just how far Google's influence has spread. The popularity of the platform is mostly due to the convenience and reliability of the search engine and Gmail. However, the widespread influence of Google has a major downside: it discourages aspiring tech companies from trying out ideas Google already has a part in, as they could not possibly dream of beating the tech giant and its massive sphere of influence. But has it spread too thin?
Recently, Google announced the shutdown of Google Plus and Google Inbox, digging the grave for two more of its less popular applications. These aren't the only applications that Google had to put away after their initial hype wore off; Google Notebook, Google Hangouts, Google Health, and Google Glass are just some of the products that the big G-man had to put down. However, this doesn't seem to be stopping them from expanding even further into uncharted territory, if their gaming console Stadia is anything to go by. However, the big question is: how far can they spread before they collapse?

Eight Values

In my opinion, the fourth of the eight values of free expression - the one which promotes individual self-fulfillment - is the most important. The promotion of individuality and expressiveness through free speech is too important a concept to ignore, as it allows people to forge their own individual sense of identity, rather than identify solely as part of a collective and nothing more. Individuality integrates the idea of free speech into our personality, dignity, agency, and autonomy. In addition, it allows us to form our own social networks with ideas and identities similar to our own, rather than forcefully being affiliated with people who we may or may not agree with solely based on areas like political party. Without our individuality, we would be more hesitant to express our ideas and thoughts, making America as a whole less innovative and self-critical; and the ability to criticize our own government is another part of what makes America stand out. Individuality is a major backbone for criticizing our government; without it, how could we expect to voice our ideas to the government if those same individual ideas are being suppressed?

Flowers and Free Speech

About a month ago, florist Barronelle Stutzman turned down a homosexual couple requesting floral arrangements for their wedding, for she believed marriage to be the union of a man and a woman. While she had nothing against the two lovers (she even provided flowers for the two for various other events; she just refused to provide for the wedding), it wasn't long before the florist was taken to court and her decision was ruled against by both the state court and the state Supreme Court branch, under the grounds that florists were not under the protection of the First Amendment. Stutzman then took her case to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the decision is still pending. The court's ruling will answer a great question: are florists, like other art mediums such as paint and dance, protected by First Amendment rights? The point here isn't that she is discriminating against the two based on their sexual orientation - again, she has sold flowers to the two men before - but rather that she is refusing to participate in a ceremony that violates her beliefs and values, and in a previous trial (Wooley vs. Maynard), it was proved the government cannot violate the individual mind. The question is, will that standard be upheld for this florist?

Here's a link to an article on the event.

Who Decides What is Unacceptable?

The controversial display in the House of Delegates

A woman's First Amendment rights were pushed to the limit in the "Republicans Take the Rotunda" event in West Virginia's House of Delegates. Outside the House, a South Charleston resident put up a rather distasteful display featuring an image of the destruction of the Twin Towers, followed by an image of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, a native of Somalia, captioned "'Never Forget', you said / I am the proof you have forgotten," as well as pamphlets titled "The Four Stages of Islamic Conquest" and "Readin', Writin', and Jihadin'." The display caused a good deal of outrage inside the House, including a Delegate forcibly opening a door during prayer, the resignation of the sergeant at arms, and a series of speeches by numerous House representatives. Many representatives came out and condemned the display, but a few also argued that this is an example of freedom of speech, and that it is something that should be protected. Delegate Diana Graves says that "While I may not agree with everything out there, I do agree that freedom of speech is something we have to protect." Which brings us to the question: how far can the First Amendment protect us when we speak of such unacceptable actions? And who dictates what is acceptable or otherwise?

An article about the event can be found here.

An Inside Look at the Supreme Court

With a few videos showing the inner working of the Supreme Court, I got to learn quite a few things about the most powerful judicial body on the planet - and yes, that is one of them. I always imagined bodies like Parliament were bigger than our Supreme Court, but as it turns out, that thought was misplaced. Its size does not make it entirely without influence however; a few of our nation's presidents have tried to appoint their own Supreme Court Justices in order to swing decisions towards them. However, this does not always go to plan for them, however. Most justices, no matter how appointed, hold no bias for the commander in chief.
Additionally, I learned about how exactly the Court reaches decisions, like the process of opinion-writing. A representative for each side of an argument of a case (if it does make it to their office; most case files don't even make it past the front desk) is selected from the justices and they must write a report supporting said argument using evidence. This process is the longest one in the entire Court, taking an upwards of 4 weeks.

Government Critics Beware

For those of you who aren't a big fan of our current President, you may want to think twice before offering any criticism. As part of his attack on his critics, President Donald Trump has found a kindred spirit in Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who wants to revisit the ruling of a court case that determined how critics of the government shall be dealt with. The court case, New York Times vs. Sullivan, had the Times pitted against city commissioner L. B. Sullivan for inaccurately criticizing some authorities in Montgomery, Alabama, and while the original case had Sullivan as the winner, the Supreme Court unanimously reversed this decision and declared that criticisms against the government, no matter how false, are protected by the First Amendment. By undoing this reversal, Thomas will be giving Trump, as well as most other governmental bodies, a legal means to go after all of their critics, creating a huge amount of risk when it comes to criticizing the government. Thankfully, no other Supreme Court Justice has joined Thomas in his concerns, so the Sullivan ruling will stay intact, but the fact that a Supreme Court Justice is considering overturning that case ruling is a chilling thought to behold.

Here is a link to an article on Thomas' decision.

Discovering My Career Path

Growing up, I thought I knew for sure what I wanted to major in and grow up to be: I absolutely, positively, without a doubt wanted to be an artist. Art has been one of my biggest passions for as long as I can remember, and I wanted to make it into my career, with the mindset of "if you make a job out of something you enjoy, you will never work a day in your life." However, in high school, I began questioning that. Would I enjoy being an artist, taking requests and harsh criticisms without the freedom to work on projects that I enjoy? My art teacher in high school asked me those same questions, confirming that it wasn't just me that was concerned about that, and from then on, I decided to find a new career path. I entered college as something I would have never expected about five years ago: an undeclared student; and I am about to declare something I would have expected even less: Game & Interactive Media Design, a major I didn't even know existed before coming to High Point University. With this major, I can combine my passion for art and design with video games, another childhood obsession of mine. From what I've experienced, I very much enjoy it.

Oh, and don't even think for a second that I gave up on art entirely; I still love to draw to this very day.

My Favorite News Sources

New York Times

- When I think of news, I usually think of the NYT. It's an incredibly reliable source of information, with many different articles and a quick little one-sentence article summary beneath each title to provide just a bit more incentive to read it. It's always my go-to for information for not just news, but anything really - if I find a New York Times page on something I'm researching, I will always use it as a source.

The Washington Post

- Another incredibly reliable source with a variety of different articles and sentence-long summaries to incentivise me to read them, The Washington Post makes itself stand out with its breaking news articles, which are shown as a headline at the top of your browser while they are breaking. In addition, it groups articles with similar themes and titles together, making navigating and finding articles much easier. The Washington Post is always an easy source of information, and the diversity of articles it covers makes it a go-to for news and information.

NBC News

- Like the NYT, NBC is a very reliable source with many different articles, and it even organizes them into different categories like "U.S. News," "Climate Change," and "Politics News." While it may not have the article summaries of the NYT, and the prevalence of advertisements is a bit annoying, NBC is still one of my go-tos for news simply for its diverse articles and accurate news reports.

CNN

- CNN is in a similar boat as NBC; reliable source, variety of articles, and organization of said articles into categories to make locating them easier. It alse groups similar articles together, like the Washington Post. It doesn't have as many ads as NBC, but they're still there, which tends to tick me off. Still, it has been one of my most reliable news sources for a long time now, and I don't think that will change anytime soon.

The Twitter US Trending/Search page

- While not really a news source or anything I would use in a paper/presentation, it's a quick and easy way to get caught up when I feel out of the loop. Still, if I want anything more detailed or specific, I usually use one of the other sources.